I dusted off a Mamas and Papas CD the other day and while wallowing in nostalgia was reminded of the California-centric obsession of mid 60s to mid 70s pop culture. At least for my age group (Boomer) and where I lived at the time (Midwest), CA was El Dorado: a mythical land of surfing and movie stars.
That brought the question to mind: When Gen Z dreams of the land of opportunity, what do they envision? All of the popular places I hear of in the news (Idaho, Florida, Texas) seem to be destinations for Boomers & Gen Xers; in other words: not starry-eyed kids.
I’m not close enough to the Gen Z or later cohorts to ask them, so what do all of you think? Is there a state that typifies the current utopian ideal, or is it another country (Canada?) or even Mars? Or doesn’t the under-25 year crowd identify with a physical place?
The Wikipedia is saying that Gen Z is people born between 1997 and 2012 (between 10 and 25 years old).
For the younger ones, the answer might be something like Second Life. For the older ones - so far as I can tell from Instagram - I think it’s more a way of living than a location. I see a lot of references to tiny homes, trying to build houses yourself, growing your own food, stoicism, etc. Though, maybe that’s the tail end of the millenials and not the Z’ers, I’m not sure.
If it is the Zs, though, then going full hermit and building your own private Garden of Eden seems to be the new dream.
And, I’ll note, I live in the middle of the city, enjoy going out to do things on the town, and am fine with running to the supermarket regularly because I trust that it’s still going to be there tomorrow. I don’t believe that Instagram and YouTube are advertising these things to me, on the basis of my personal interests. I think I just don’t respond to ads, so I get the default.
If we’re talking specifically Gen Z it would be cities, San Francisco, New York City, Austin, etc. There’s been a huge influx of younger people to those cities because of their reputations of being “open” and “tolerant”.
Mexico seems to have a great appeal for the GenZers I’ve employed. Two have actually made the move; one for the surf in Baja; the other for the LGBT community in Mexico City.
I remember in the 90s everyone wanted to move to Washington state because of the grunge scene seattle because of the tech scene and the state was viewed as Hospitable to pot smokers
I know more than a few people who moved to Seattle or Portland in the '90s for the “scene”. The ones who didn’t return ended up settling in the Oregon and Washington sticks because they couldn’t afford the cities.
Though I find the thought slightly depressing, I think you two are on to something: why does anyone need to go to Hollywood to be a star – or to make the “scene” anywhere for that matter – when you can make your own media, starring you on Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube? And as virtual reality becomes better and less expensive, you will be able to make your own environment and even a cheering receptive audience for your productions. So all you need is a climate-controlled cubicle anywhere and enough income to finance your self-absorption.
The cultural disconnect between the Boomer generation and the current one is greater than I imagined.
How much of the old California Dream was PR and how much was reality? Now if you’re interested, you can check out locations on Google Earth and on Zillow, or other real estate sites.
well as a song said " all the gold in California is in a bank in the middle of Beverly Hills in someone else’s name so if youre still dreamin about CA well it’s a different game these days "